The Burot Beach Experience - An Escape to Calatagan

Summer is about to end, or should I say “has ended” as rainy days are coming fast here in the Philippines. But, I guess, it’s not that end to post something about my summer getaway.

My bestfriends and I are looking for an affordable out of town trip so most of us could come. Sad to say that our La Union plan has been cancelled, so we decided to look for a Puerto Galera trip - but it seems like a fortune to some of us. After that, about two weeks before our preferred dates, we searched for a cheap beach in Batangas. There were plenty of them and because it is still summer, some were full with reservations.

Upon searching the web, something caught my attention. A place called "Burot" located in Calatagan. Pictures across the internet show how beautiful that place is and how similar it is on some island in Zambales.

Our Burot trip happened last May 18 and 19, 2013. We took a bus from Pasay to Lian Batangas. From Lian Batangas, we took a jeep that lead us to Calatagan new market. When we were on the market, many tricycle drivers are there to drive you to Burot beach. But me being ready, I already have a contact person to drive us to the beach. I looked for him and he was pretty popular on the place. We called him "Choks" together with another driver, "Jester".

These two guys are really friendly and a provider. They took us on a store where we could buy some ice with discount. Also, Choks let us borrow his knife as we were like not so ready travelers on that time. The road on the way to the beach is really rocky and sandy, so I must advice that you should just enjoy the ride. ;p

Joanne, Robinson, Bhadz (Best Friends)

When we arrived, we were amazed with the place and with the number of people. There were plenty realizing that it was a weekend trip! We barely got enough time to choose for the proper place to stand our tents. In Burot Island, there are no comfortable rooms that you can rent aside from the tents that you can use. Please be reminded that if you do have your own tent, carry it along the way because renting a tent on the beach is hard as there will be no reservation. In short - first come, first served. Luckily, one of my friends brought one, and the caretaker told me that there's an available tent that I should get in a minute unless I want someone to grab it first.


At first, we chose a location where we could just jump on the sea. A boatman talked to us for an island hopping and snorkeling. We were all surprised when he told us that we could get those activities for only P40.00 per head only. See how affordable that was??

Then, after eating, we looked for another place because the first one was kinda filthy. We had chosen a beautiful location in front of the sea. There, we stood our tent, fixed our things and prepared ourselves for the sea that seems to call us.

The beach. The water is cool - not too cold actually. But, there were too many seaweeds which held us on swimming to the farthest point that we could reach. Mind that at that time, it was low tide so even if you're not a swimmer, you can go that far on the shore.

About 3:00 pm when the boatman (Mang Felix) fetched us on our place. We were ready and got into the boat with no worries on our heart even if there were only 2 life vests available. Mang Felix told us that if something bad happen; we should just relax and hold the boat as light as we could. The island hopping was not something like the term We just stopped on a place where a beautiful vacation house stands in the middle of the sea. 30 minutes of taking pictures and we decided to do the snorkeling. At first, only two of us went down on the boat because we were afraid as it was too deep and we have no life vest. Then, with so many deliberations all of us decided to went down as well. 

That was breathtaking and another plus moments in my life. Imagining me, someone who’s afraid of the deep blue sea, still went down on the boat, enjoyed the moment, looked down on the abyss without a life vest! What an achievement for me!

Snorkeling and Island Hopping

As we arrived on our place, we took a shower and changed our clothes - afraid that later on that day, many people will line on a queue to go on shower too. Some prepared our dinner as we waited for another tent to rent.

While waiting, a man (who's waiting for a tent as well) talked to us to ease the boredom that he might be experiencing. I forgot to ask his name but he lived in Bulacan. He was nice, a dog lover and bought us Piattos. Haha. It was good talking to him and feels like a newly found friend was invested to him. Though we have not known him that well, I am hoping to see him still, on another time and place.


In the end, we didn’t get another tent, so 4 of us slept on a single tent. The night was so cool, the stars are really amazing and the place was dim. The bonfire we lighted didn't last an hour. So, we rented a torch to lighten our night. My friends drunk a little and enjoyed playing cards - 1,2,3 Pass! Sadly, I wasn't able to participate due to my headache.

Don't worry when night came in, it was peaceful in Burot and SM security guards will be there to look for the travelers.

In the morning, we had a breakfast on the only store that could be found on the beach. We had noodles and coffees. Around 8am when we changed for our swimming gears and floated on the sea. Another achievement of mine? I learned how to swim a bit and float freely on the water. When we felt so tired on the water, we decided to go on shower as there are only few cubicles to use.

We were then done; our things were ready and were just waiting for Choks and Jester to fetched us and we paid them until we reach the market again. There, you can choose on riding an air-conditioned bus, an ordinary bus or a van to drive you on Pasay.

The Road to Burot

We chose the van. It was a nice ride home. Very tiring. Very exhausting. But as we see everything, we sure did enjoyed every moment of that trip :)

Thanks to the people I am with on that trip. It was really fun.

Credits to the people that we met.
The Tricycle drivers:

Choks - Contact him: 0918-494-3958                          

Choks

 Jester - Contact him - 0998-451-2826

So, try camping at Burot. You will surely not regret it!